Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- List of Maps
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- List of abbreviations
- Notes on translation and anonymity
- Map 1
- Map 2
- Introduction
- 1 Chikuho: A Short Description
- 2 The Chikuho Revivalists
- 3 Idegawa
- 4 A Short History of Coalmining: Chikuho in Context
- 5 The Picture Show Man
- 6 A Culture of Violence
- 7 H-san Mine: Violence and Repression
- 8 The Bathing Master
- 9 Labour Conflict: The Case of the K-san Union Action
- 10 D-san and the Students
- 11 Mizuno
- 12 The Y-san Disaster
- 13 Sono
- 14 Welfare
- 15 Welfare in Chikuho
- 16 A Yakuza Story
- Conclusion
- Bibliographical Essay
- Bibliography
- List of Informants
- Index
- Plate section
6 - A Culture of Violence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Plates
- List of Maps
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- List of abbreviations
- Notes on translation and anonymity
- Map 1
- Map 2
- Introduction
- 1 Chikuho: A Short Description
- 2 The Chikuho Revivalists
- 3 Idegawa
- 4 A Short History of Coalmining: Chikuho in Context
- 5 The Picture Show Man
- 6 A Culture of Violence
- 7 H-san Mine: Violence and Repression
- 8 The Bathing Master
- 9 Labour Conflict: The Case of the K-san Union Action
- 10 D-san and the Students
- 11 Mizuno
- 12 The Y-san Disaster
- 13 Sono
- 14 Welfare
- 15 Welfare in Chikuho
- 16 A Yakuza Story
- Conclusion
- Bibliographical Essay
- Bibliography
- List of Informants
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
A number of discussions about violence have appeared within anthropology over the years. Taussig's discussion of the colonialists' rubber plantations in Colombia is a good example of the way the issue of violence has been made a central theme. Other writers have attempted to situate the topic within the field of the sociology of violence. Yet others have tried to develop a Marxist dialectic, by focusing on the issue of violence in class conflict.
I see violence, and its implementation, as an extreme manifestation of the unequal relationship between the holders of power and the powerless. This position swings around the definition of violence. Riches has said that the commonsensical meaning of violence is ‘the intentional rendering of physical hurt on another human being’. He has also said that violence is used when the power-holders in any given relationship are ‘confident that their actions command a legitimacy [and] they are able … to satisfy their ambitions through deploying physical harm’. That is, violence is used to forestall challenges to the control of the powerful by the powerless, and this violence is legitimated by employing the rationale that it maintains social equanimity. Violence is seen by the victim, on the other hand, as an unambiguous use of illegitimate force.
Therefore, the definition Riches settles on is that violence is:
an act of physical hurt deemed legitimate by the performer and illegitimate by some witnesses and by victims. The tension in the relationship between performer, victim, and witness consists of two elements: an element of political competition, and an element of consensus about the nature of the violent act … […]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Undermining the Japanese MiracleWork and Conflict in a Japanese Coal-mining Community, pp. 106 - 123Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994